Interview questions for attorneys

sonny · October 2001

Our small municipality is in the process of hiring a staff attorney/city prosecutor. We have talked about good interview questions previously, but can any of you help me with some questions SPECIFIC to attorneys/this type of position. Thanks in advance.

System · October 2001

You might pick a handful of important duties this person will do in their first year. It could be drafting contracts, prosecuting polluters, affirmative action, etc. For each task, ask their experience in this area of law or ask how they would do it. My guess is that this job has a very broad range of duties, and you probably won't get a lawyer who's experienced in all of them unless they held a similar job for another town.

Also, try to figure out whether they have the people skills needed for the job. Almost all lawyers think they're excellent writers and easy to work with. Many of them are wrong. x;-)

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Theresa Gegen TX · October 2001

James advice is good. I think putting hypotheticals to them to see how they would handle the problem is not a bad idea. Especially if the attorney is going to give lots of advice. The hypotheticals might be based on a specific problem that seems to come up frequently. Even if the attorney could not answer the problem off the cuff (which lots of times we can't), the attorney should be able to develop a plan to address the issue.

Of course, this is very job and duty specific.

Good Luck!

Catherine · October 2001

Will this be your only city attorney? If so, I strongly recommend hiring someone with at least some criminal experience, either prosecuting or defending. Consider having your municipal judge on the panel and allowing him/her to bring questions. If your city uses outside counsel, you might discuss with them what they believe the city needs in terms of a staff attorney.

Unless this position pays well enough to draw a city attorney with years of experience, be prepared to spend money training your new attorney. I practiced more than four years out in the rest of the world before becoming an assistant city attorney, and I found that there are many things unique to municipalities that few attorneys have any need to discover.

I do believe that it will be very important for your new attorney to be able to play well with others, so their interaction with you during the interview is probably more important than the questions you ask and their responses to them. Good luck in your search.

BThompson · October 2001

Sonny,

My husband has been the city attorney for a small municipality (pop. 23,000) for the last five years. If it would be helpful, he'd be glad to talk with you and offer suggestions for interview questions. Just send him an e-mail: [email]thomplaw@bellsouth.net[/email].

Brenda Thompson
Attorney
M. Lee Smith Publishers

sonny · October 2001

Thank you all. Some very helpful suggestions!

Interview questions for attorneys

Comments